Postgame Report | Sabres unable to hold off Flames in 7-2 loss

The Buffalo Sabres held a 2-0 lead after the first period in their game against the Calgary Flames on Saturday at KeyBank Center, but it was all downhill there.
The Flames scored seven unanswered goals, including four in the second period and three in the third on their way to handing Buffalo a 7-2 loss.
Tage Thompson scored his 35th goal of the season, setting a new career-high in points (69) in only 51 games and Casey Mittelstadt tallied for Buffalo. Those goals came on two of Buffalo's three shots in the first period.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped 33 of 40 shots in Buffalo's first game since February 1 due to All-Star Weekend and the team's mandated bye week.

"We never found a rhythm even though we had some good energy in the first and then we died," Sabres coach Don Granato said.
"The game looked to me like it was pretty simple: a team that's already playing their third game coming back and a team that just had 10 days and didn't play. We were one step off and I think it started cognitively and then manifested physically."
Tyler Toffoli scored twice, and Jakob Pelletier, Mikael Backlund, Dennis Gilbert, Nazem Kadri and Dillon Dube also lit the lamp for Calgary.
Flames goaltender Jacob Markstrom made 21 saves, including 14 in the third period.
Buffalo's power play went 1-for-3 against and the penalty kill was 2-for-3.

"They came out and just punched us in the face. They just played better than us," Thompson, who returned to action after missing the third period of Buffalo's final game before the break with an upper-body injury, said.
"I didn't think we played great in the first, just a little bit rusty, but maybe a bit of a false sense of security being up two goals after the first period. Probably should've talked about it a little bit more after the first and try to get to our game. We just got pounded in the second period."
The Sabres have fallen in three-straight games (0-2-1) after winning five in a row.
"This group of guys has been great at looking in the mirror and moving forward. We looked fatigued. We looked like we hadn't played in a while," Granato said. "The next game we should have that under our belt. We should be much less so. That's going to be a bonus right out of the gate. These guys will feel much better.
"Within the context of this, get out of your own head. We don't want to overcomplicate it. It happened. You can't dwell on negative. You have to move forward, and I trust our guys to do that."

How it happened

PERIOD 1
The Sabres scored on two of their first three shots to open up a productive first period.
Thompson ripped a one-timer into the back of the net on the power play at the 7:56 mark to give the Sabres a 1-0 lead, marking his first power-play goal since January 7. Rasmus Dahlin picked up the primary helper to increase his career-high assist total to 42.

Mittelstadt made it 2-0 with 7:26 remaining when he found a lane at the top of the right faceoff circle to fire a wrist shot past Markstrom.

The goal marked his eighth of the year and his first since he potted a pair on December 29, a span of 17 games.
The Sabres were outshot 11-3 in the first period. Scoring chances at even strength (according to Natural Stat Trick) were 7-5 in Calgary's favor.
PERIOD 2
The Flames dominated the middle period to go up 4-2 after 40 minutes.
After a quick breakout, Pelletier got a step ahead of his defender to put home a pass from Kadri past Luukkonen at the 2:17 mark.
Then just 20 seconds later, Backlund fired a shot through traffic to tie things up.
Gilbert, a Buffalo native with a good number of family and friends in attendance, scored his first of the season at 4:04 to give Calgary its first lead of the game.
At that point, Calgary held a 10-0 edge in shots during the second period.
Luukkonen had to come up huge with a glove save on Dube 7:06 into the second and with 15 seconds left on a Sabres power play. Andrew Mangiapane skated in on a 2-on-0 with Dube, but couldn't beat Luukkonen.

However, Kadi redirected a shot in to put the Flames up 4-2 only 33 seconds later to hit the 20-goal mark for the fifth time in his career.
At the media break with 8:42 remaining, the Flames held a 30-4 advantage in shots on goal at that point. The Flames ended up outshooting the Sabres 23-5 in the second and 34-8 overall by the time the teams skated to the locker room for the second intermission.
PERIOD 3
Heading into the game, the Flames were 21-1-3 when leading after two and the Sabres were 3-16-0 when trailing after two.
"I felt like we were pretty disconnected out there in the second and the third," Thompson said.
"Not a lot of support, whether it was on the forechecks or coming out of our own end. I think if you don't support your teammates, it's going to make you feel like you're chasing the game."
The Flames added to their lead 1:57 into the third when Toffoli's shot went off the post, off Luukkonen's left skate, and in.
Toffoli added another - his 21st of the year - when he ripped a shot top shelf with 6:55 to go.
Dube put up his fourth point of the game when he tallied with 2:49 remaining to make it 7-2.
Shot attempts favored Calgary by a 66-53 margin after Buffalo outshot Calgary 14-6 in the final period.

Up next

The Sabres are off for their final road trip outside of the Eastern time zone.
They'll be in California for the next week, starting Monday night in Los Angeles. Faceoff against the Kings is set for 10:30 p.m. on MSG and WGR 550. Pregame coverage begins at 10 on MSG.
"It's just a good time to kind of forget about this one and move on," Thompson said. "It's a lot of hockey coming up and this road trip's a big one for us. No time to dwell, we'll just move forward. These are pretty big games here."
Buffalo's next home game is February 21 against Toronto. Tickets are on sale now.